Become an ordained minister?

Universal Life Church

I registered online for free. I can now perform weddings, funerals and exorcisms.

 

Thanks for the advice. I've been looking online, and considering The Missionary Church International, and from their looking for an online seminary that is affordable, and does not require a residency.

I've noticed there was a debate over a few of the links posted, but I'm wondering if The Missionary Church Internation a legit organization? I'm looking online, but haven't found much about them. If any information it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt

 

The Missionary Church International was founded by the late Benjamin Covington, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. He and a number of UMC clergy felt the UMC was too liberal.

I believe Dr. Levicoff has called this church an ordination mill. However, there are numbers of congregations with buildings, worship services, and programs just like any other church.

Two that I know of and have worshipped at, are the Crossroads Community Church in Indianapolis and the Missionary Church at Shelbyville. The Indy church averages about 125-150 each Sunday morning, has a good sized attendance on Sunday evenings and a nice sized congregation on Wednesday evenings.

The Shelbyville church had a nice sized congregation of about 50-60. It has now closed due to the minister taking over for the late Ben Covington who died a year or so ago.

Of all the ones I recommended, I would choose the Christian Church of North America or the Evangelical Church Alliance.

Again, however, you really need to make sure God has called you and you really should speak with your pastor and obtain his input. Where did he obtain his credentials?

 

Re: Universal Life Church

You may or may not be joking but to anyone else considering this route I urge caution.

My understanding is this may not qualify you to perform weddings in all states. Some states have tried to set standards to ensure that folks who got ordained off of match book covers (etc) do not run around performing weddings. I guess ULC is cute as a novelty gag.

Also, if you want to enter a federal chaplaincy (as with accreditation issues) unless something has changed...ULC will not qualify you. They are not recognized by NCMAF/Armed Forces Chaplains Board.

North

 

Re: Re: Universal Life Church

Good advice, North. I have known of many ministers who were ignorant of state laws. Here are the laws in the 50 states.

Scroll down to the state listings.

 

Re: Re: Universal Life Church

 

What I wrote in the 4th edition of NIFI was this:

Nonetheless, I can't help thinking that the key question regarding this thread is why so many people bothered to reply to the original post in the first place.

 

We have a sure prophetic word...not to mention servants of the Druj

Well, of course. If you look at the names of the ordination mills unaccountably promoted in one particular post, they are all clever knock-offs of the names of real denominations.

You've got a point, Steve. Given the turn this thread took, why I answered at all beats me. The proper answer (if any) would have been: "why are you asking this question on a distance education board?" or perhaps "if you're looking for an ordination mill, stick your head up your heinie and search the stars."

As it is, what we got early on was an unfortunate reminder...

 

Re: Re: Universal Life Church

As I've written before, the most moving and beautiful wedding that I've ever attended was conducted by my then next door neighbor, a ULC 'minister', on a bluff overlooking the Pacific at Montana de Oro.

What harm is there in that?

What I like about it is that it seeks to open up the benefits of being a religious practitioner to individuals. It is a small victory for free-lance spirituality.

I think that the requirements you speak of could easily be overturned by court challenge, if anyone were interested in doing so. Having the government decide which religious practitioners are legitimate and which are not, requiring recognized religious practitioners to be members of particular religious denominations, or requiring them to have qualifications that are traditional only within certain denominations, are clear violations of the establishment clause.

Of course, such a court decision would probably have little real life impact on military chaplains. Even if the government were prohibited from judging who is and isn't a legitimate clergyman, the military would still be faced with the task of serving the religious needs of its personnel, and would need to preferentially hire chaplains that represent the denominations most in demand by the troops.

 

So let me jump in on this with a question... I already have a graduate degree... (and working on another...) so all I have to earn is 36 more semester hours in theology to be considered for the chaplaincy???

 

Boys, boys (and girls, too) . . .

I'm not sure which is more fun - the notion of people getting their fantasy rocks off on porn boards, or the fantasies of would-be chaplains here on degreeinfo.com.

Nonetheless, the requirement for most chaplaincies (federal or otherwise) includes:

1. An M.Div. or its equivalent (which is how they get around the notion of preferring one denomination over another, thus avoiding church-state conflicts);

2. Denominational or ecclesiastical endorsement (which may take the form of a congregational endorsement in denominations without a hierarchial structure);

. . . and the one everyone conveniently forgot to mention:

3. At least one unit (400 clock hours) of Clinical Pastoral Education, from a training program approved by the ACPE.

Keep in mind that the term "federal chaplaincy," alluded to in this thread, is not limited to the military, but includes other environments such as hospitals and prisons. Moreover, the nature of a chaplain is that he or she meets the spiritual needs of the entire constituent population, regardless of each person's particular faith. Thus, Catholic chaplains will minister (for lack of a better term), to some degree, to Jews and Muslims, and vice versa. Likewise, chaplains are specifically prohibited from engaging in "pervasively sectarian" evangelism that would offend constituents. In other words, if a Muslim soldier asks a Baptist chaplain for a copy of the Quran, the chaplain (1) must provide it, if similar materials are provided that represent other religious faiths, and (2) may not say to the soldier as he presents the book, "You know, brother, you're following a false religion. You need Jeeeeeeeeeee-zuss!" (Chaplains have, in fact, been fired from federal positions for such "proselytizing," and those firings have been held to be valid in the courts.)

Finally, the government is under no obligation, constitutionally or otehrwise, to hire a chaplain for every denomination represented in an institutional setting. A Muslim chaplain, for example, functions without regard to whether his individual constituent population is Shiite or Sunni, and the same rule applies to any other major religious faith.

In short, for anyone who wants to become a chaplain, stop trying to enter the "kingdom of the chaplaincy" through the back door - it won't work.

 

I thought I remembered your comments on TMI. I will say that TMI does have missionaries. I have been to a few TMI conferences and have seen and heard the missionaries from around the world. A number had locals with them testifying to the work of the missionaries and TMI.

I do agree that charging for credentials is wrong although the ECA, a fairly recognized and reputable organization, charges. The United Pentecostal Church collects annual ministerial dues.

And, ordaining by mail, email, or Internet is wrong. I didn't used to think so, but I have come to see the danger in this. I have changed my mind quite a bit about ordination processes and procedures during the past couple years but I still do think there are legitimate bodies outside of major or mainline denominations that ordain. Again, the ECA is one of these.

I have found that a number of major and minor denominations have applications for ministerial credentials on the Internet. The Assemblies of God, Open Bible Standard Churches, The Missionary Church, are a few of these. The CCNA advertises credentials on their site.

 

The reason I asked about becoming an ordained minister on this board, is I read this board a while back, and everyone here is pretty informed. I'm not looking for simply ordination to hang on the wall, but with traveling and working in the ministry it seems like a very important step, but certainly not the final step.

I'm also looking for a good seminary that is avaliable via distance learning, and I'm checking into Bethany Divinity College and Seminary, which seems like a very good option.

I certainly don't want to give the wrong impression that I'm simply wanting to become "ordained". I feel one should not take the steps if they do not feel they are called by God into the ministry. I was searching online and ran across the "ULC" website, and thought I would post here, because the ULC website itself throws up a number of red flags, and a couple of the links posted earlier on in this thread looked a LOT more legit, which is why I asked. ULC is certainly not an option.

While I'm a member in good standing of a Baptist church, that is not the kind of ordination that I'm seeking, but a non-denomination ordination, which is why I've started searching online, because I wasn't quite sure where to start.

I appreciate all the help so far, and as I've said before I'm still looking for a solid seminary program that is avaliable via distance learning, and affordable. Any suggestions would be great.

 

Goalie,
You might consider Luther Rice Seminary Also, check out .Baker's Guide for a whole lot more options.

BLD

 

Re: Re: Re: Universal Life Church

However even this site is not comprehensive and there may be other options available in your state or county. For example check out this county site to see how the "commisioner for a day" option works. In theory one could set up a wedding business using this option.
http://riverside.asrclkrec.com/SVmarriage.asp#m4

 

Luther Rice is a good choice. But if money is an issue, and since you are Baptist, you really should look into Temple Baptist Seminary and also check all the TRACS seminaries on their site.

Bethany is a good choice but I am not sure I would go unaccredited in this day and age.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Universal Life Church

But the discussion related to ministers and weddings, not civil ceremonies. Interesting site, however.

 

At the age of ten I jumped off a two-story building using an umbrella as a parachute. Othen than one of the metal ends poking me in the eye, I was not seriously hurt.

 

CCNA

One of the routes I suggested was the Christian Church of North America. I was curious about their educational institutions since the only mention of education on their site is their correspondence Bible college.

So, I emailed them and asked if they had Bible colleges and seminaries. Here is the response:

Interesting but not surprised that a recognized denomination does not have a Bible college or seminary since quite a number of recognized denominations have no educational arm whatsoever, especially in the Anabaptist tradition.